Tom Petty Tour Launches in San Diego

Don't stare at his new album cover artwork too long before you try to drive to the Tom Petty show tonight in San Diego. Wait, does your copy of Petty's brand new release, Hypnotic Eye, even have album "artwork."

It's Petty's first new album of original material since 2010's Mojo. And Petty and the Heartbreakers have put out a variety of versions of the disc, go figure. You get one extra song on the 2-disc vinyl version, if that's yer bag. Hypnotic Eye is also available as a single vinyl LP, a CD, Blu-ray audio, and in FLAC digital audio, for those of you who like learning new acronyms every other day, and enjoy having to go out and drop some serious cash on some techno-wonder that may be obsolete before you finish making all the interest payments on the dang thing. OK, wait, you don't really have to buy any new devices to play this FLAC stuff. And it's lossless too. Can't beat that.

Of course if you don't care about hi-def FLAC MP3s, or Neil Young's new Pono audio service, you could be normal, and just download the thing from iTunes or Amazon as a regular MP3. We're being facetious, of course. Why would you just download it, and then have nothing to hold in your hands? And if you did that, you would only have a little teeny-weeny glimpse of album cover art to stare at while you and Petty shared your last dance with Mary Jane before the show.

Oh yeah, the show: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers kick off a major U.S. tour tonight, Sunday, August 3, in San Diego. That's down in Southern California. The tour runs through October 10th at the Los Angeles Forum. Why it's gonna take Petty two and a half months to make the 100-mile drive from San Diego to L.A. is anyone's guess, although he may make a few stops along the way.

Keep in mind you get a free copy of the album with the purchase of a concert ticket, so like, if ya brought along little Bobby and Susie and Uncle Richie, you'd then have four copies of Hypnotic Eye, so you could give some away to friends. Unless your friends all beat you to it, in which case your next family gathering might include a lot of copies of Hypnotic Eye in your annual game of "White Elephant."